FORA.tv - Steve Wozniak: How I Invented the Personal Computer

FORA.tv has an excellent video featuring Steve Wozniak.

I tried to embedded a 5 minute segment where Woz was talking specifically about the Apple I and II, but for some reason the embedded code kept going the wrong section of the video.

So instead I am just going to point you to the 5 minute section here at FORA.tv

Enjoy ~ Jim Cox

Video: FPGA Tuning C64 SID Jeri Ellsworth

Here's a video for all you Commodore 64 and Jeri Ellsworth fans out there:



I need to do some digging around to see what other classic systems and chips are emulated with FPGAs.

Color Computer Manuals And Books AvailableColor Computer Manuals And Books Available

Update 10/18/09: All manuals have now been given away.

I have been doing a little house cleaning, and I have gone through all my Color Computer manuals and books and sorted out all the duplicates. All the manuals and books below are available for the cost of shipping (USPS or UPS, your choice).

I want to give back to the CoCo Community, so I would prefer to give these only to those I know from the CoCo list hosted by Maltedmedia, and not to speculators who will just sell the stuff on eBay.

If you are not a member of the list, but are in need of these manuals feel free to contact me via the email link in the "Welcome" section, and will can discuss your needs.

This list will be updated as items are given away, so check back often to see what is still available ~ Jim

Color Computer Manuals And Books:

1. Getting Started With Color Basic. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3191 3 Copies - 1 spoke for
   
2. Going Ahead With Extended Color Basic. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) Spoken for
   
3. Color Computer 3 Basic Quick Reference Guide Spoken for
   
4. TRS-80 Color Computer Operation Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3001/3002 Spoken for
   
5. Color Computer Disk System - Owners Manual & Programming Guide. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) 3 Copies - 1 spoken for
6. Color Computer 3 Extended Basic. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) Spoken for
7. Introducing Your Color Computer 3. (No Radio Shack Catalog number listed.) 3 Copies - 1 spoken for
8. Tandy Service Manual - Color Computer 3 NTSC/PAL Version with 512K Exansion RAM Card. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-3334 - Spoken for
   
9. TRS-80 Color Computer Technical Reference Manual Spoken for
10. Direct Connect Modem Pak Operation Manual 26-2228 Spoken for
11. Deluxe RS-232 Program Pak Operation Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-2226 4 copies - 1 spoken for
    
12. DMP-100 Printer Manual. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-1253
13. TRS-80 Color Computer Assembly Language Programming - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 62-2077 - Spoken for
14. Instructions for Presto Painter for the CoCo

OS-9 Specific Manuals And Books:

1. The Complete Rainbow Guide To OS-9 ISBN: 0-932471-00-5 2 Copies - 1 spoken for
   
2. The Official Basic 09 Tour Guide ISBN: 0-918035-00-7 Spoken for

The following is a collection of Radio Shack OS-9 Manuals that have been hole punched and placed in a three ring binder, and will only be offered as a complete set:

• Getting Started With OS-9
• OS-9 Commands
• OS-9 Program Development
• OS-9 Technical Information
• This set has been spoken for.
  

Miscellaneous Manuals and Books:

1. 6809 Microcomputer Programming & Interfacing With Experiments ISBN: 0-672-21798-8 Tentatively spoken for.
   
2. Circuit Design Programs For The TRS-80 ISBN: 0-672-21741-4
3. Color Computer Graphics - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 62-2076
4. How To Use Your Radio Shack Printer - William Barden Jr. Radio Shack Catalog Number 26-1242
5. Motorola MC6809-MC6809E Microprocessor Programming Manual Motorola Catalog Number: M6809PM(AD)
6. Technical Manual for the Star Mitronics Gemini-10X Dot Matrix Printer
7. C. Itoh Dot Matrix Printer Model 8510A Users Manual

WIRED: Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

If you ever wondered what it would be like to spin you own 8-Bit CPU then check out "Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires" from WIRED.com.

The article details how Steve Chamberlin of Belmont California designed, and wire wrapped his own 8-Bit CPU called the "Big Mess of Wires" or BMOW. The design is similar to the 6502 and the completed project will be on display at the fourth annual Maker Faire this weekend (May 30 - 31, 2009)

Take a look at Steves site for more details: http://www.stevechamberlin.com/cpu/about/

Vintage commercial: Sinclair ZX Spectrum +

Here's something for all you Zed fans out there:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

About that "History of the Internet" video, and something for the Apple II crowd

I have received a couple of emails about how the video in the previous post "Video: History of the Internet" is a little on the inaccurate side, so I would like to invite those of you who are a little more up on their about the history of the internet than I am to comment at that post, and state what you believe the inaccuracies are. (That's a subtle way of encouraging comments to this blog huh? :)

I'll try and do some more research on my own and follow up with another post at a future date, or if someone else want's to submit a more historically accurate article for this blog, I will be happy to post it for them.

Remember that this blog is for members of both the 8-Bit Retro Computing and Vintage Computing & Computers groups on Linkedin.com, so if you are a member of either of those groups you can submit articles for this blog. I am also open to allowing non-members to submit articles and news, so drop me a line if you have something you would like to add to this blog.

Now I haven't done much in the way of adding links or news for the Apple II fans out there, but I do plan to do so in the near future. In the mean time here's a picture I snagged from this site at Flickr that should bring back some memories for you Apple geeks.

Please feel free to comment, and drop me a line if you have any suggestions, concerns, or corrections for anything posted in this blog. And as always, please let me know of any links I should add to the links list in the sidebar. Cheers ~ Jim Cox

Recording audio to a floppy disk

I came across this article at CrunchGear on how to record analog audio on to a floppy disk. It's a pretty good hack, so check out the article: Video: Recording analog audio to a floppy disk

Below is the video that was featured in the article. It was produced by The Fat Man and Circuit Girl which looks like a great site to find some interesting hacks, some using surplus equipment.



The Fat Man and Circuit Girl are George Sanger and Jeri Ellsworth respectively. Jeri is best known for her work on the Commodore 30-in-1 Direct to TV, and she has a YouTube page at: http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth. I especially like the video: CDROM Tray Cup Warmer / Cooler with Over Clocked 8bit CPU's and Peltier Cooler

Now I know a many of you have lots of surplus stuff lying around, so The Fat Man and Circuit Girl should give you plenty of inspiration to hack away at some of it. Cheers ~ Jim

Video: History of the Internet

A friend pointed me to a video on YouTube titled "History of the Internet", and while it is not directly related to 8-Bit retro computing it is still pretty cool, so I thought I would share it with you. Cheers ~ Jim

Cool CoCo videos!

Allen Huffman put together this great video of the 18th "Last" CoCoFest that took place last weekend. I have never been to a CoCoFest, so for me this is a great treat because I finally get to see some of the people who I have only known via email or chat.

So check out Al's great "CoCoFest 2009 Teaser" video, and be sure to read his "2009 CoCoFest Report"!



Allen also let me know (and the entire CoCo News Group) about this video montage from shubibinman titled "Tandy CoCo Tribute" If you are an CoCoNut or an 8-Bit Retro gamer then you should get a blast out of this!

OS News: 8-Bit Game Creator Now Available for Order

I just caught this posting over at OS News, thought many of you would be interested in it: 8-Bit Game Creator Now Available for Order.

The system is from Playpower.org, is available from MakerShed for $49.99, and comes with:

• 6502 processor,
• Keyboard, and mouse,
• 2 game controllers,
• Operating system cartridge -
• RCA cables (NTSC video and stereo audio)
• 9 volt power supply
  
• You can also get an adapter for your NES cartridges
  

At a glance I couldn't see anything about how much memory comes with the system. I did notice that the OS cartridge comes with a GUI in Mandarin Chinese, but fortunately has an DOS prompt in English. Maybe someone will come up with an Englsih version of the GUI in the near future, but then again for me working with a command line is a blast!

It looks like a great little system, and if I were current working and not worried about saving my pennies I would consider getting one.

Take a look at the Playpower.org site. I like the organization's philosophy of getting low cost systems into the hands of kids that provide them enough resources to encourage them to explore computing.

Feel free to drop me a line or leave a comment if you know more about this system ~ Jim

Amazing video of a large vintage computer collection

Update 05/18/09: Steve just left a comment stating that the Color Computer 1 is not actually black, but it just looks that way due to the lighting ~ Jim

Original Post:

This is just an incredible video of a very large collection of vintage computers and gaming systems. For all you Radio Shack Color Computer collectors take a look at the black Color Computer 1.



Here is the URL for Steve Benway's site: http://www.benwaysworld.co.uk/

If you have any news or links to add for this blog just drop me a line. Thanks! ~ Jim

Basic Stamp Super Computer!

I came across a video on YouTube title "My Basic Stamp Super Computer" and while it's not exactly 8-Bit, it still is cool:



Now this has got me inspired to play with my Basic Stamp kit ~ Jim

New CoCo links, and some cool CoCo videos

A friend of mine suggested some CoCo links for me to add to the CoCo Links ( Tandy Color Computer ) list, so I have gone ahead and added them. Check them out when you have the time.

My friend also sent me some cool looking CoCo vidoes; two are Radio Shack Commercials, and the other is a video of the Boink Bouncing Ball demo. Here they are:

• Radio Shack Tandy CoCo 3 Commercial: Merry Christmas HQ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3dtQ01MFlg
• 80's Radio Shack Color Computer Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2jRuh1bAxw
• Boink Bouncing Ball demo on CoCo 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eonlhPhv01s

I rcouldn't find much in the way of retro computing news except the Slashdot article below:

• Slashdot: Apple IIe Emulator Released For the Wii

This blog could use a lot more links, especially for the Apple II, Commodore, and Atari links lists. Feel free to leave a comment with your link suggestions or any leads for articles. You can also send me an email by clicking the "here" link in the "Welcome" section on the left-hand side.

PS: I just found this great CoCo posting! Check it out: The Color Computer (a.k.a. CoCo).